The present invention relates, in general, to the field of computer architectures incorporating multiple processing elements such as multi-adaptive processors (xe2x80x9cMAP(trademark)xe2x80x9d, is a trademark of SRC Computers, Inc., Colorado Springs, Colo.) . More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods for accelerating web site access and processing utilizing a computer system incorporating reconfigurable processors operating under a single operating system image.
Presently, many different forms of electronic business and commerce are transacted by means of individual computers coupled to the Internet. By virtue of its computer-based nature, many electronic commerce (xe2x80x9ce-commercexe2x80x9d) web sites employ various methods to allow their content to be varied based on the demographics of the particular user.
This demographic information may be obtained in a variety of ways, with some sites simply requesting the site visitor respond to one or more questions while others may employ more sophisticated techniques such as xe2x80x9cclick streamxe2x80x9d processing. In this latter instance, the prospective interests of the site visitor are inferred by determination and analysis of, for example, the previous sites he has visited. In either instance however, this data must be processed by the site such that the web page content may be altered in an effort to maximize it appeal to that particular site visitor with a view toward ultimately maximizing site revenue.
Since studies have shown that the average Internet user will wait but a maximum of twenty seconds or so for a web page to be updated, it is vitally important that the updating of the page contents be completed as rapidly as possible. Consequently, a great deal of effort is placed into maximizing the software performance of algorithms that process the user demographic data. Currently, all known web servers that accomplish this processing employ industry standard microprocessor based servers and, as a result, their maximum performance is thereby limited by the limitations inherent in the standard microprocessor xe2x80x9cload/storexe2x80x9d architecture.
SRC Computers, Inc., assignee of the present invention, is an industry leader in the design and development of multiprocessor computer systems including those employing industry standard processors together with multi-adaptive processors (xe2x80x9cMAP(trademark)xe2x80x9d) utilizing, for example, field programmable gate arrays functioning as the programmable MAP elements.
Particularly disclosed herein is a system and method for accelerating web site access and processing utilizing a multiprocessor computer system incorporating one or more microprocessors and a number of reconfigurable processors operating under a single operating system image. In an exemplary embodiment, a web site may be serviced with a hybrid multiprocessor computer system that contains both industry standard microprocessors and one or more reconfigurable processors that share all the system""s resources and operate under a single operating system image, (although, in an alternative embodiment, cluster management software may be used to make a cluster of microprocessors appear to the user as a single copy of the operating system). In such a system, demographic data processing algorithms may be loaded into the reconfigurable processors which may be provided in the form of specially adapted field programmable gate arrays (xe2x80x9cFPGAsxe2x80x9d). In this manner, the appropriate algorithm may be implemented in hardware gates (as opposed to software) which can process the data up to 1000 times faster than a standard microprocessor based server.
As an exemplary implementation, one particularly efficacious hybrid computing system is the SRC Computers, Inc. SRC-6 incorporating multi-adaptive processors (MAP). In such a system, the algorithms loaded into the MAP elements to process the data can be completely changed in under 100 msec. This allows for the possibility of quickly altering even the processing algorithm without significantly delaying the site visitor. The ability to change the algorithm, coupled with highly accelerated processing times allows for more complex algorithms to be employed leading to even more refined web page content adjustment.
Through the use of such a hybrid system operating under a single operating system image, a standard operating system, such as Solaris(trademark) (trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.) may be employed and can be easily administered, a feature which is important in such e-commerce based applications. Since the MAP elements are inherently tightly-coupled into the system and are not an attached processor located, for example, on an input/output (xe2x80x9cI/Oxe2x80x9d) port, their effectiveness and ease of use is maximized.
Demographic data processing is merely an example of how the unique capabilities of such reconfigurable processing systems can be utilized to accelerate e-commerce, and xe2x80x9csecure socketxe2x80x9d operation is yet another possible application. In this instance, such operations can often consume as much as 80% of the typical, traditional site server microprocessor cycles. SRC Computers, Inc. has demonstrated that reconfigurable processor based systems, such as the SRC-6, can perform decryption algorithms up to 1000 times faster than a conventional microprocessor thereby also allowing for faster web site access while concomitantly allowing more robust data encryption techniques to be employed. Similarly significant speed advantages could be realized in, for example, implementing database searches wherein the search algorithms can be directly implemented in the hardware of the reconfigurable system providing two to three orders of magnitude execution time improvements over conventional microprocessor based solutions.
In general, the use of hybrid computer systems with a single system image of the operating system for web site hosting allows the site to employ user selected hardware accelerated versions of software algorithms currently implemented in a wide array of e-commerce related functions. This results in an easy to use system with significantly faster processing capability which translates into shorter site visitor waiting periods.